Our wonderful, dear, sweet, fun, beautiful little Lucky is 4 years young!!!
It’s just like yesterday when he came to us – little white tail tip proudly waving, checking his new world. Little king of universe, so self-confident, so independent. Only way to change his mind if he wanted to go and check something, was to catch him. And if it was time to rest at day time, I had to put him in Rocco’s crate and ask my good grandmother to "tell him fairytales" until he fell asleep :o). He was born brave and socialized and his mum did very well telling him all the good manners a little Sheltie must know. Well, during last 4 years and with the help of Rocco, he has forgotten one good manner - he loves barking now :o). With our good boy Rocco, when he is happy, it's possible to hear it :o). When Lucky was puppy, he came to Rocco and looked at him barking wondering what's the reason, but now it's possible to hear Lucky being happy too :o). And Lucky is a lot happier dog by his spirit :o). And Rocco has ON/OFF button, but Lucky's doesn't work so well :o). Also we have found couple of things he is afraid of - 1) big fly in the room, then he immediately wants to evacuate :o) and 2) grooming, then he immediately wants to emigrate to dog shelter :o). Except the few last aspects, Lucky hasn't changed much. He still has the same sweet puppy soul as 4 years ago, only in couple of numbers bigger coat :o). Still owns the whole world, and all his self-confidence and independence are still there. Lucky can’t believe someone could not like him or tell him no. As answer to Rocco’s most serious cRoccodile growl he uses the opportunity to check all his teeth :o). And when done, washes his ears too :o). He never waits for his turn, because it’s always his turn and then you don’t have to wait, right? When some other furry friend comes to say hi to me, he definitely has to be between us.
In town, our preparations to go out with him take ages from his point of view. He runs rounds from one room to another keeping safe distance from my hand that might want to grab his coat, as to running is connected barking :o). When we finally get out of the door he takes speeding up the process to his paws – when elevator arrives and doors start to open, he usually pushes his nose between the doors and lowers his back like it would open the doors and let him in faster. And out too. In country his preparations to go out start even sooner. When we have finished breakfast and rise from the table :o). He won’t even consider possibility, that we might go to another room or something. He is sure we have plan to go out. And if I let only him out, he will stand behind the door and hope we plan to go out :o). We try to take longer walks on weekend so he could use his energy. He really has very good batteries. When we go to ski, he usually hops next to my ski tips and barks all the time :o). I don’t even aim for high speed, we just have nice walk on skis, little faster and longer then our evening
walks. On the skis nobody could beat Lucky in speed anyway. At summer daddy raced with him couple of times on his fancy bicycle and even then Lucky was faster. Lucky is a small dog, I don’t want them to race long distance and Lucky wouldn’t even go, he would return to me, if I don’t go with them. But it’s possible to see he loves to race, he hops and barks next to bicycle too asking to go,go,go... . It’s not so many possibilities in town to use his energy. I try to let him run out of leach in the forest next to our home and we play. But there have been many times, when after coming back home when I plan to give myself a medal for tiring Lucky :o), he comes to me with his toy before I can get my coat off :o). He can get invitation to play out of anything. If we go to sleep and he isn’t tired yet, it definitely looks to him like we want to play hide and seek game and of course he is ready to be the one seeking. Guess how Rocco likes it – he usually has settled in to be sweet calming teddy bear and someone starts to dig him out :o). And as Lucky is very thorough, sometimes additionally to digging uses his teeth too. To save my little digger from daddy’s revenge :o), we tell to daddy about big moth with biiiiiig teeth flying around in our home :o) He still can read from sleeping cat's body language, that he is missing someone to play with and in return, he is very happy, when cat stretches his paw to crab him, when he walks by - it's definitely start for a loud and happy play. To him also Rocco’s most serious cRoccodile growl is invitation to play too. Rocco has from the very first minutes had the opinion, that who brought the puppy should also play with him. But Lucky doesn’t let this to interfere. Rocco’s not playing with Lucky doesn’t mean Lucky won’t play with Rocco :o). At country, when Lucky goes to invite Rocco to play, we play Angry dogs game :o). I’ll go to Rocco and holding him back tell him steady-ready-gocatchthepuppy. And then Rocco goes like bullet on his direction and Lucky runs around him soooo happy. As I have wrote before all and everything in Rocco is about kindness, so he’ll never really attack Lucky. Lucky’s favorite games are without any doubt all kind of splash games and football. It’s very easy with him on wintertime when all the ground is covered with white treat – if it’s necessary to get his attention, then throwing snowballs or just splashing snow should be enough. Even mentioning it. In summertime it’s much harder, me jumping to puddle would be too fun for those I don’t plan to motivate too :o) . But there’s more options, equally he likes football too. Preferably he is the judge who has to run after ball and comment all the time. But if there’s only one football player, he agrees to bring ball back too. As it comes to playing with another dogs – Lucky won’t play. He liked a lot wrestling game with his Jack Russell classmates in puppy school. But there isn’t many other breeds in the same weight class with a little Sheltie and after a few takedowns he doesn’t want to try any more. He loved chasing game too, but there’s a little violent babe who grabbed from his precious coat when caught him, and that of course Lucky couldn’t bear :o).
I’m sure you don’t believe me if I tell that this little violent babe was Fancy :o). She practiced at home on Pippi and though Lucky was faster, she made shortcuts and ...well, Lucky doesn’t want to risk running without pants :o). So Lucky doesn’t play with other dogs. When we had Pippi, Fancy, Caily and Simba (Lucky’s & Fancy’s tric.son)visiting us in country this summer, then when others played together Lucky came to me with a toy :o). Dog trainers dream, isn’t he? Well, not always. He knows he is very important stud dog and very important stud dog has to collect very important stud dog information :o). But I’m not “real” trainer and for me he really is a dream to train. I’m afraid I have wasted a lot of his capabilities, he is a free soul, commands are all optional to him :o). But he is only 4 and we have a lot of time to continue. He is such a clever student. And only possible to train positive way, saying him no takes all his will to cooperate. I don’t know what to tell about us in agility. He is eager and fast for sure, but his translation of my body language is something totally different then what I ment :o). Agility takes 2 full evenings, so obedience we only train for fun on our walks. Sometimes. Seldom. Same with tricks. Shame on me. I have real treasure for training tricks - Silvia Trkman’s training DVD’s. Our holding the flowers trick for birthday card comes from that source and we really had fun training it. So I promise to continue with others too and you could help me by asking very often how it is going with that promise. Then I can’t sweep under the carpet :o). He is good student to Rocco too. I have written
before, that I give KONG stuff-a-ball filled with treats to Rocco and Lucky when we leave home in the morning. It started from a dog bisquit I hided for Rocco when he was a puppy. Just to find out how much he wonders around apartment when he is home alone. Well, he found it and so we continued this tradition. Later I hided stuff-a-ball so it would be harder to get the candy. Next step was, that I told Rocco to get the ball for me in the morning, so I could fill it. When Lucky came he got his own ball and in the beginning Rocco had to bring me both. Lucky observed him doing that until one day he brought one himself. And now, when we come home from our morning walk they responsibility to wake daddy up. And before I wake up Kelli, Lucky has searched on ball and can’t wait until I ask him to bring it to me. Sometimes he manages to take one ball and stand next to other with it. Then Rocco is in big trouble, because polite gentleman as he is, can’t grab it from Lucky :o). I try to tell them to bring correct ball, but they don’t really care. Rocco has figured out additional way for earning candies – after he has brought the ball, he goes to find some more things to bring. Everything suits for him he can get from the floor – from toys to daddy’s shoes :o). And Lucky follows him, soon I’m sure all the footwear will be brought to me to kitchen :o) When we are getting ready to leave, they are sitting noses toward candy-balls waiting on the case. And one more funny thing about Lucky related to candy-ball – I’ll give ball to Rocco first and he goes to other room with it for privacy :o), but when I offer to Lucky his ball, he never takes it from hand, when it’s filled. He points toward floor with his nose like telling me to put it there. I consistently offer it to him from hand every day but he consistently waits until I put it on the floor :o) and then methodically empties it by rolling it with his nose. And when it’s empty, it’s no problem for him to take it from floor, from hand - every way.
There's so many things to tell more, so many sweet or fun or interesting moments. Going trough our old photos so many of them came back to me. But I'll leave something for next birthdays too and end this posting with some photos
This photo is made by Linda Ottesen, owner of Lucky's sister Foxy. Sooooo sweet, mum watching Lucky's dreams.
This photo is made shortly after Lucky arrived to our home. He had long day, without sleeping (only a little in airplane). So when we game home, he checked everything and then came to me and fell asleep.
Also not very artistical photo, but it reminded me of a sweet moment. We were tenting on the beach and thanks to Lucky who asked out at night, I saw sunrise on the sea. I have watched sunsets on the sea and seen sunrises in other environments. But this view really was so wonderfully beautiful. I don't have photo of it, but I hope to always have it in my memory.
This photo is taken in Lithuania. We took Lucky everywhere with us and he always acted same way - curious and bold. Lucky has even been shopping with me. If you wonder what's the big deal about it - Estonia is very unfriendly to dogs and dog owners. Dogs are prohibited in most of places. But on the other hand - we estonians are very fashion oriented people too. After a "big world" mega-babe suddenly little Chihuahuas appeared to list of accessories of our mega-babes too. And next thing was that you could meet one even in food store. And though I'm as far from mega-babe as Lucky from Chihuahua, nobody denied us to walk in too :o).
Happy birthday, my dear, sweet little puppy! Happy birthday Foxy, Isac, Max & Shadow.
I have written quite a lot about him here, but there's always more to tell, so here comes Lucky's birthday posting.
It’s just like yesterday when he came to us – little white tail tip proudly waving, checking his new world. Little king of universe, so self-confident, so independent. Only way to change his mind if he wanted to go and check something, was to catch him. And if it was time to rest at day time, I had to put him in Rocco’s crate and ask my good grandmother to "tell him fairytales" until he fell asleep :o). He was born brave and socialized and his mum did very well telling him all the good manners a little Sheltie must know. Well, during last 4 years and with the help of Rocco, he has forgotten one good manner - he loves barking now :o). With our good boy Rocco, when he is happy, it's possible to hear it :o). When Lucky was puppy, he came to Rocco and looked at him barking wondering what's the reason, but now it's possible to hear Lucky being happy too :o). And Lucky is a lot happier dog by his spirit :o). And Rocco has ON/OFF button, but Lucky's doesn't work so well :o). Also we have found couple of things he is afraid of - 1) big fly in the room, then he immediately wants to evacuate :o) and 2) grooming, then he immediately wants to emigrate to dog shelter :o). Except the few last aspects, Lucky hasn't changed much. He still has the same sweet puppy soul as 4 years ago, only in couple of numbers bigger coat :o). Still owns the whole world, and all his self-confidence and independence are still there. Lucky can’t believe someone could not like him or tell him no. As answer to Rocco’s most serious cRoccodile growl he uses the opportunity to check all his teeth :o). And when done, washes his ears too :o). He never waits for his turn, because it’s always his turn and then you don’t have to wait, right? When some other furry friend comes to say hi to me, he definitely has to be between us. 
And this also comes for this furry friend greeting his owner or Rocco or who ever. Lucky always first :o). Rocco is very modest dog, he lived 7 years without asking food when we were eating. Lucky just comes to me, puts his little paws on my knee and looks me in the eye. You have seen his sweet face, guess if my heart melts :o). Rocco loooooves the food, but he still has some modesty left, so he sits next to me with his most modest look. And of course my heart melts again :o). Don’t you now think, that we don’t have any order in the house. We do. If I tell them no they are gone. And They don’t misuse my softness, it’s not very often they come to ask. And they choose what to ask :o). When Rocco is oriented to meat in every possible form, then Lucky would appreciate yoghurt & honey too, sometimes even more then meat. He is real little dandy who puts really high focus on his outfit. As I have mentioned before, he has all the hair counted in his coat, so when I take out grooming bag, he is gone. Even if he thinks I might think about taking out grooming bag he is gone :o). He can’t afford donating any hair of his precious coat. Also he is weight watcher. Dry dog food is not popular at all. Here we have good helper in Rocco, who empties his own bowl like vacuum cleaner and makes Lucky worry the same can happen to his bowl too :o). It was vice versa when Lucky was little puppy, then he emptied his bowl in a second and then went to help Rocco. Now his policy seems to be using calories first and then eating according to what was used :o). And thanks to that we have to watch out that people won’t call animal protection when he comes out of water :o). OK, I exaggerated. He just has a slim, sporty body. My show-friends are telling me he should weight little bit more and my agility-friends tell me he could weight little bit less, so I think he has good sound average weight for being my happy active friend as he is. We have tried different brands – Hill’s, Orijen, Magnusson, home-made food and now they are eating Acana. Home-made food was popular, even gaining the weight. But how could I know they get everything they need from it. And with Magnusson Active even Rocco lost weight :o). One dry food Lucky can’t resist is the one in cat’s bowl. He just has to grab a mouthful every time he has the opportunity even he knows it’s not allowed :o). As we were talking about food – could you please, please comment – the brands, your experiences – here in blog or by e-mail – I would very much appreciate.
Now Lucky’s favorite topic – action :o). He is always ready for all kind of activities.
In town, our preparations to go out with him take ages from his point of view. He runs rounds from one room to another keeping safe distance from my hand that might want to grab his coat, as to running is connected barking :o). When we finally get out of the door he takes speeding up the process to his paws – when elevator arrives and doors start to open, he usually pushes his nose between the doors and lowers his back like it would open the doors and let him in faster. And out too. In country his preparations to go out start even sooner. When we have finished breakfast and rise from the table :o). He won’t even consider possibility, that we might go to another room or something. He is sure we have plan to go out. And if I let only him out, he will stand behind the door and hope we plan to go out :o). We try to take longer walks on weekend so he could use his energy. He really has very good batteries. When we go to ski, he usually hops next to my ski tips and barks all the time :o). I don’t even aim for high speed, we just have nice walk on skis, little faster and longer then our evening 
walks. On the skis nobody could beat Lucky in speed anyway. At summer daddy raced with him couple of times on his fancy bicycle and even then Lucky was faster. Lucky is a small dog, I don’t want them to race long distance and Lucky wouldn’t even go, he would return to me, if I don’t go with them. But it’s possible to see he loves to race, he hops and barks next to bicycle too asking to go,go,go... . It’s not so many possibilities in town to use his energy. I try to let him run out of leach in the forest next to our home and we play. But there have been many times, when after coming back home when I plan to give myself a medal for tiring Lucky :o), he comes to me with his toy before I can get my coat off :o). He can get invitation to play out of anything. If we go to sleep and he isn’t tired yet, it definitely looks to him like we want to play hide and seek game and of course he is ready to be the one seeking. Guess how Rocco likes it – he usually has settled in to be sweet calming teddy bear and someone starts to dig him out :o). And as Lucky is very thorough, sometimes additionally to digging uses his teeth too. To save my little digger from daddy’s revenge :o), we tell to daddy about big moth with biiiiiig teeth flying around in our home :o) He still can read from sleeping cat's body language, that he is missing someone to play with and in return, he is very happy, when cat stretches his paw to crab him, when he walks by - it's definitely start for a loud and happy play. To him also Rocco’s most serious cRoccodile growl is invitation to play too. Rocco has from the very first minutes had the opinion, that who brought the puppy should also play with him. But Lucky doesn’t let this to interfere. Rocco’s not playing with Lucky doesn’t mean Lucky won’t play with Rocco :o). At country, when Lucky goes to invite Rocco to play, we play Angry dogs game :o). I’ll go to Rocco and holding him back tell him steady-ready-gocatchthepuppy. And then Rocco goes like bullet on his direction and Lucky runs around him soooo happy. As I have wrote before all and everything in Rocco is about kindness, so he’ll never really attack Lucky. Lucky’s favorite games are without any doubt all kind of splash games and football. It’s very easy with him on wintertime when all the ground is covered with white treat – if it’s necessary to get his attention, then throwing snowballs or just splashing snow should be enough. Even mentioning it. In summertime it’s much harder, me jumping to puddle would be too fun for those I don’t plan to motivate too :o) . But there’s more options, equally he likes football too. Preferably he is the judge who has to run after ball and comment all the time. But if there’s only one football player, he agrees to bring ball back too. As it comes to playing with another dogs – Lucky won’t play. He liked a lot wrestling game with his Jack Russell classmates in puppy school. But there isn’t many other breeds in the same weight class with a little Sheltie and after a few takedowns he doesn’t want to try any more. He loved chasing game too, but there’s a little violent babe who grabbed from his precious coat when caught him, and that of course Lucky couldn’t bear :o).
before, that I give KONG stuff-a-ball filled with treats to Rocco and Lucky when we leave home in the morning. It started from a dog bisquit I hided for Rocco when he was a puppy. Just to find out how much he wonders around apartment when he is home alone. Well, he found it and so we continued this tradition. Later I hided stuff-a-ball so it would be harder to get the candy. Next step was, that I told Rocco to get the ball for me in the morning, so I could fill it. When Lucky came he got his own ball and in the beginning Rocco had to bring me both. Lucky observed him doing that until one day he brought one himself. And now, when we come home from our morning walk they responsibility to wake daddy up. And before I wake up Kelli, Lucky has searched on ball and can’t wait until I ask him to bring it to me. Sometimes he manages to take one ball and stand next to other with it. Then Rocco is in big trouble, because polite gentleman as he is, can’t grab it from Lucky :o). I try to tell them to bring correct ball, but they don’t really care. Rocco has figured out additional way for earning candies – after he has brought the ball, he goes to find some more things to bring. Everything suits for him he can get from the floor – from toys to daddy’s shoes :o). And Lucky follows him, soon I’m sure all the footwear will be brought to me to kitchen :o) When we are getting ready to leave, they are sitting noses toward candy-balls waiting on the case. And one more funny thing about Lucky related to candy-ball – I’ll give ball to Rocco first and he goes to other room with it for privacy :o), but when I offer to Lucky his ball, he never takes it from hand, when it’s filled. He points toward floor with his nose like telling me to put it there. I consistently offer it to him from hand every day but he consistently waits until I put it on the floor :o) and then methodically empties it by rolling it with his nose. And when it’s empty, it’s no problem for him to take it from floor, from hand - every way.
There's so many things to tell more, so many sweet or fun or interesting moments. Going trough our old photos so many of them came back to me. But I'll leave something for next birthdays too and end this posting with some photos
This photo is made by Linda Ottesen, owner of Lucky's sister Foxy. Sooooo sweet, mum watching Lucky's dreams.
This photo is made shortly after Lucky arrived to our home. He had long day, without sleeping (only a little in airplane). So when we game home, he checked everything and then came to me and fell asleep.
This photo is taken in Lithuania. We took Lucky everywhere with us and he always acted same way - curious and bold. Lucky has even been shopping with me. If you wonder what's the big deal about it - Estonia is very unfriendly to dogs and dog owners. Dogs are prohibited in most of places. But on the other hand - we estonians are very fashion oriented people too. After a "big world" mega-babe suddenly little Chihuahuas appeared to list of accessories of our mega-babes too. And next thing was that you could meet one even in food store. And though I'm as far from mega-babe as Lucky from Chihuahua, nobody denied us to walk in too :o).
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